Balla Balla

'Balla Balla', comprising the homestead (including its interior) constucted c.1880 (with possible earlier sections), and its associated gardens (including two Canary Island Palms and an Italian Cypress) and land at Baxter-Tooradin Road, Cannons Creek.

'Balla Balla' is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Casey (and potential regional significance).

'Balla Balla' is regionally significant for its link, by history and part of its fabric, to the early and formative pastoral era in the Westernport and Gippsland districts. The house, by its original construction, relative integrity and style, appears to be substantially from the 1870s or early 1880s and as such is linked with Alexander M Hunter, a well known grazier in the colony at that time. Part of the building can also be linked with Dr Adams who was also a noted figure in the district. 'Balla Balla' homestead is in part the city's oldest known house and the major part of the house is among the city's oldest buildings.

'Balla Balla' is architecturally and aesthetically significant as a relatively intact example of an early dwelling in the now rare Colonial Georgian style. Although the house has been renewed in many sections of the interior, it still has valuable joinery such as the French windows, cupboards and stair. The fireplace mantels are also notable, as is the unusual plan. The mature Canary Island palms and Italian Cypress are of local importance as mature individual specimens and as major remnants of a former period garden setting for the house, although not contemporary with the earliest fabric.